Family
by Asymia
Summary: Gaz was always one of those people who could get whatever they wanted. It's too bad what she wanted most in the world was already gone. One-shot. Rated T for dark themes.


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***Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim**

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"_Beep beep beep beep!" _

Gaz reflexively slammed her fist down on her alarm clock's snooze button before her eyes even had the chance to open themselves to the gloom of her downtown apartment. She made a mental note to pick up a new clock at the nearest available shopping mart later that day once she heard the annoying little machine's screen shatter. Gaz rolled over on her mattress and attempted to slip back into her subconscious.

"_Beep beep beep beep!" _

"What the hell…?" Gaz groaned as she blinked her eyes open once more. She glanced over at the night stand and saw her cell phone, alight in its excitement with being rung, a glaring flame amongst the otherwise pitch black room. As her eyes adjusted, she snatched up the phone from the counter and flipped it open.

"Someone _better_ be dead," Gaz growled into the mouthpiece, "Because I really hate being woken up in the middle of the night for your stupid alien crap, Dib."

"Um… Might I be speaking to Agastella Membrane, legal representative for Dibury Membrane at the asylum down on Main Street?" said a woman's voice, slighty shaken with timidity over the greeting she'd just recieved.

Gaz's eyebrows raised slightly. She hadn't gone by her whole first name since she was six, and neither had Dib. "You might." She replied wearily.

"This is Catherine Amberlene, I work at the local precinct?"

Gaz blinked. "Sorry, you must have the wrong number; I have no idea who this Dibury person is."

"But, you just said his name when you picked up the phone." Amberlene replied, now obviously slightly annoyed.

Gaz sighed. She wasn't getting out of this one. "Alright, what did he do now? I swear, I can't believe our tax dollars go to that god forsaken asylum at _all_, they can barely keep track of their patients." She stumbled through the darkness until she found the light switch, and the room was instantly basked in its radiant glow.

"Miss Agastella, it would seem to prove slightly difficult to stop two severely hallucination-prone patients that have just blown a hole in the side of your building to escape, don't you think?" Amberlene patronized. Gaz let out a low whistle. How much money were they talking here?

"Alright, give me ten minutes, and I'll be there." Gaz replied, scouring her countertop for her wallet. Her gaze fell upon the two framed pictures that were her pride and joy. The first was of herself, Dib, and her father, one of the few times they'd done something as a family- or what was left of one. The second was of her mother, during the later stages of her pregnancy with Gaz. If only they'd known only one of them would make it through childbirth.

"Alright," Officer Amberlene said, "Although, there's still the matter of Ozymadias Fletcher. Now, I know he's not your kin, but you were the one who requested for him to be placed in the asylum along with your brother, therefore you claimed responsibility for his actions as-"

"Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'll come bail out Zim, too." Gaz hurried the officer along, ready for this whole thing to be over and done with. This had happened quite a few times in the past, both Dib and Zim's childhood rivalry at Anderson's Institute for the Mentally Troubled Youth had never really gone away.

"Um… That brings me to the next matter of business, Miss Agastella." Amberlene said rather awkwardly. "By law, I'm afraid you aren't allowed to bail either of them out. Not for… manslaughter…" Amberlene's voice trailed away, as if she knew something very important and was afraid to inform Gaz of it.

"Manslaughter…? Who… who did they kill?" Gaz questioned chokingly, her stomach twisting to knots as she feared for the worst, and prayed for the best.

"Um… You see, I think this may be my least favorite part of the job," Amberlene stalled, "You know, notifying the family."

Gaz's breath caught. She felt her knees buckle beneath her. She wanted to scream, but no sound came from her lips.

No. He couldn't be gone.

Not like this.

Not when he was the only one she had left to call hers.

"I'm so sorry, Agastella. Professor Membrane is dead."


End file.
